Since the advent of the World Wide Web, there has been a need to provide internet access to customers at ever increasing data rates. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology over existing copper wires can provide data rates of up to 24 Mbit/s, but many customers will experience significantly lower data rates due to the length of the network connection. One solution is to install Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) networks, such as PONs (Passive Optical Networks), but this approach requires very significant investment.
Another approach is to install limited amounts of optical fiber and to utilize it in conjunction with the legacy copper cabling. FIG. 1 shows a schematic depiction of a hybrid fiber-copper access network 100 in which a telephone exchange 110 is connected to a plurality of customer premises 500 (the customer premises may be domestic, commercial or industrial premises). One network architecture is Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC, or FTTCab), in which the telephone exchange 100 is connected to cabinets 120 by optical fiber cable 115. VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line) data signals can be transmitted over the fiber cable to equipment in the cabinet which converts the optical signal to an electrical signal which can then be transmitted over a copper cable 125 to the customer premises 500. The customer premises are connected to the cabinet via a distribution point 130, which is typically located near to the customer premises, for example at a telephone pole. The distribution point is connected to the customer premises 500 using a dropwire 135, either via a telephone pole or via an underground connection, for example within a duct.
The VDSL2 technology commonly used with FTTC networks is typically able to deliver data rates of up to 80 Mbit/s downstream and up to 20 Mbit/s upstream (or even higher) although the data rate is dependent on the length of the copper cables between the customer premises and the cabinet and commercial choices made by the network operator. The use of G.fast transmission technology (which is an advanced DSL transmission format) with such networks should provide downstream data rates of 300 Mbit/s-1 Gbit/s, depending on the length of the copper cable connecting the cabinet to the customer premises.
A typical VDSL2 FTTC cabinet will be capable of receiving up to 6 line cards, each of which has 64 ports, so that the cabinet can support up to 384 customer premises connections. The cabinet needs to be located near to an existing PSTN telephony cabinet and to have an optical fiber connection to the exchange and an electrical power feed. Whilst such cabinets are effective in many suburban and urban areas, they are not appropriate for use in areas where there is a small number of customer premises or where a small number of customers cannot be served from existing cabinets. It is possible to use a smaller cabinet designed to serve a smaller number of customer lines but the fixed costs associated with providing and installing a cabinet mean that it can be uneconomic to provide a cabinet to serve only a small number of customers.